On Wednesday, January 6, Ms. Farren attempted to discuss the divorce with her husband. He wanted to reconcile. She refused due to his explosive temper. In typical pit bullfashion, he attempted to murder her in their third-floor master bedroom.

The police report details a bloody battle. Mr. Farren tackled her to the floor, pulled out “gobs of hair,” and beat her with a metal flashlight until she passed out. He strangled her until she lost her sight. She regained consciousness, but couldn’t see to hit the panic alarm. He threatened:

. . .don’t hit the alarm button. . .

At 10:00 PM, she found it and the alarm sounded. “He went nuts” and continued to beat her with the flashlight.

Mary Margaret Farren in the hospital after the beating

Then, he got a large knife and threatened to slit his wrists. Ms. Farren seized the opportunity to flee with the couple’s two young daughters, and infant and a 7-year-old:

. . .daddy’s trying to kill me. We have to leave now.

Ms. Farren drove her BMW to a neighbor’s house at 855 Weed Street ~ the first house she saw with lights on. She didn’t know her neighbors, but they responded when she honked the car’s horn and banged on their door. They must have been horrified to open their door to see a woman bleeding profusely with two little kids in her car.

Ms. Farren’s was hospitalized for a broken jaw, facial fractures, and lacerations.

John Michael Farren was arrested for attempted murder, first-degree assault, and first-degree strangulation. He was placed on suicide watch in the jail’s psychiatric ward.

John Michael Farren

Will Ms. Farren Be Safe?

Mr. Farren pled not guilty. Judge Bruce P. Hudock set bail at $2 million and issued an order of protection. Mr. Farren was ordered to surrender his passport and shotgun. Ms. Farren’s attorney Andrew Bowman told the judge:

She is terrified of him and we ask as many restrictions be placed upon him as possible.

She believes that when he is released that he will find her and kill her and their children. She has requested bodyguards and personal security measures given his “past associations and resources.” In other words, she knows he can easily hire a hit man.

She is suing her husband for $30 million because her injuries prevent her from working. If convicted, her husband could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. In addition, she is concerned he will use their $4.8 million home as collateral for his $2 million bond. In her affidavit she told the court:

Given the community in which we live, and the station of living to which we are accustomed, and our plans for the future life and education of our children, the defendant’s obligations to support his children are substantial.

. . .several bank accounts containing hundreds of thousands of dollars, one with $1.8 million and another with $1 million.

A judge froze $15 million of Mr. Farren’s assets. A request to suspend his law license was denied because the judge didn’t think there was a risk he’d be representing clients from the jail’s psychiatric ward.

John Michael Farren

Mr. Farren’s Fall from Grace

Mr. Farren had been a rising star in the Republican Party. But, he apparently hasn’t worked since he left the Bush Administration under a bit of a cloud in July, 2008. I’m a little curious about how a guy making $158,500/year collected such massive assets.

“It seems like a pretty big fall from being general counsel at Xerox and the number two at the Department of Commerce.”

Farren also seems to have made some enemies within the Republican Party during his time in Washington. . .served as deputy campaign manager for the George H.W. Bush’s re-election campaign, he also left the Department of Commerce in 1992 for what one presidential aide described as “delibertately trying to manufacture unnecessary political controversies,” according to [an April 20] 1992 story in the Legal Times. . .

. . .Farren had angered some Republicans and corporate backers for taking a tough stance on foreign companies that violated laws by selling imported products at below-market rates. “He has a prickly nature, is hot-tempered and stubborn.”

The original 1992 Legal Times article “Bush’s Trade Strongman. . .Pursues Task with Politically Costly Zeal” was reprinted in their blog:

. . .due to his energetic role in several highly charged trade issues, Farren’s stock at the White House is falling. . .

Farren, whose decisions affect key sectors of the American economy, supervises a small army of bureaucrats who are charged with protecting troubled U.S. companies from unfair trade practices. . .anti-dumping. . .import restrictions affecting steel, semiconductors, machine tools, lumber, and automobiles. . .threatening thousands of U.S. jobs. . .[If you don’t have a manufacturing-related job now, you can pretty much blame Mr. Farren.]

“Farren has recently dropped three turds in Bush’s lap.”

Four officials. . .are tired of spending their days trying to resolve controversies that. . .should have been handled more deftly by Farren.

This is why reporters and bloggers are raising their eyebrows over a statement made by Fred Fielding, who was Mr. Farren’s boss at the White House:

This report [of the attempted murder] is sad and stunning and completely out of character to anyone who knows or has worked with Mike.

Other Republican politicians are drawing ire for brushing attempted murder off as a “private matter.”

Mary Margaret Farren testifying at trial. Mr. Farren claimed it was too stressful for him to attend the trial.

Abuse of Power Begins at Home

This case is exactly why I so frequently get on my soapbox about breaking down the walls of silence about domestic violence.

The general public doesn’t connect the dots between the loss of their jobs and what went on behind closed doors and locked security gates in Connecticut. Powerful men who abuse their loved ones tend to abuse the power entrused to them too.

Mr. Farren isn’t the first Bush administration official who engaged in deadly domestic violence. On July 13, 2006, William H. Lash III, who was assistant secretary of commerce, murdered his 12-year-old autistic son before turning the shotgun on himself. His wife, Sharon K. Zackula, had just fled the house after being physically assaulted by her husband. They lived in McLean, Virginia.

Updates: This post was picked up by the Washington Post. They have investigative journalism resources humble bloggers like me don’t have to dig into stories like this one. So, I hope you’ll click on the link to read what they uncovered.

10 responses to “Mary Margaret Farren: CT Attorney Brutally Beaten by Her Husband who Was Pres. Bush’s White House Counsel”

men who beat up women are cowards. this article was well researched but i was put off by the politicization of the story. maybe that was necessary to make it into a big story, though.
many democrats who beat their wives too. look up alan grayson, michael mannino and charlie wilson for just 3 examples.
im not a republican, so please dont flame me.

There is a great deal of passion and heat in this post because I’ve walked in Ms. Farren’s shoes. We are both attorneys who were abused by attorneys with tremendous political power. When I was trying to figure out how to survive the high-ranking judge (a Democrat) who had told me with conviction that he could kill me and “get away with it,” the first survivor story I read was of Charlotte Fedders. She was married to a high-ranking official at the SEC (another attorney).

I was chilled to the bone when I discovered that Mr. Fedders and Mr. Farren were likely colleagues at the SEC. I was not optimistic about Ms. Farren’s prospects in finding justice or getting real protection from him. He was able to avoid incarceration ~ she and her children had to live in hiding ~ until after his conviction.

This post went viral last weekend because survivors are celebrating the fact that she and her children are finally safe. However, she is permanently disabled. Me too.

Thank you for bringing similar cases to my attention. When I have time and energy, I hope my research will find the women in their lives were able to survive, thrive, and find joy. Visitors to my blog and I need inspiration from people who were able to go from victim to victorious.

I too am a survivor of domestic violence from someone in a similar situation. We were in the banking industry. I took my keys, and left literally with the clothes on our backs. An order of protection for these men is a piece of paper. The joke of the system, is because of my trading licenses and working within the banking industry, I cannot change my name and social security number, because MY fingerprints are linked to the fed database, even though this is a well documented case of extreme duress, I am in hiding from him, with my family. He finds us, and we move again. I left the industry, left the grid, left our money behind. Because, life is more important. But, there is a problem with the system, when victims still can’t find protection, still have to run and still have to hide. Like Mary Margaret, my husband has the means, the determination and the power to eliminate me. Because in his mind, I belong to only him. He will never let me forget that, and he does that regularly.

We’re walking in the same shoes. Your story makes me weep. I understand it totally.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but I think the safest place for us is in the spotlight. This is a huge reason why I started this blog. As I approach my blog’s sixth anniversary, my global audience of almost 600K makes the playing field more level. Yet, I remain circumspect and hyper-vigilant. You know what I mean.

I think it is time for those of us who have been abused by powerful men to join forces. The system doesn’t help us. I think it doesn’t help us because there are too many with a vested interest in the status quo ~ this includes the DV system which is supposed to protect us.

I too survived domestic abuse from 2 different men. I now suffer from ptsd and fibromyalgia.
Mary Margaret Farren spoke of memory loss and feeling overwhelmed when she had a lot of things going on. Obviously this is all related from the abuse.
The sad thing is most men get a slap on the wrist, while we will suffer the rest of our lives from this abuse. Restraining orders dont work, we need to make changes to protect women.(

My daughter Tameika Simmons is fighting a domestic violence and custody case, because her husband brutally beat her causing almost identical damage like Mary Ferren, breaking her jaw in three different places. Magnolia, Mississippi is the worst place to get help, no way this convicted felon Eddie Simmons Jr., should not get custody of the two boys. He didn’t return the children after the summer break August 1, 2015, bullying them from their mother. Abuse is devastating to the victims and the fear of losing your life is horrible. Someone please help!!!!!

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